The present invention relates to a device for sorting flat, rectangular items, in particular mail items.
Mail sorting machines for substantially flat, rectangular items (such as letters, envelopes, folded magazines and newspapers, etc.) are supplied by upstream stages in the process, where the items are generally arranged in disorderly, substantially mixed stacks.
It is therefore difficult to automatically extract (sort) the items from the stack and load them on to the input device of a follow-up processing machine (e.g. a conveyor belt).
For automatically sorting the items, sorting devices have been devised for extracting flat mail items from a stack and loading them on to a conveyor device connected to a mail processing machine.
European Patent Application EP-A-582.869 by FINMECCANICA S.p.A., for example, relates to a sorting device for flat, rectangular items, whereby a supporting surface inclined to the horizontal supports a stack of mail items pushed by a slide towards a stop device located along the top front edge of the supporting surface.
The sorting device comprises a gripping head movable three-dimensionally in space, and which provides for releasably engaging the front surface of an item contacting the stop device, withdrawing the item from the stack, and releasing it on to a conveyor device, e.g. a conveyor belt.
In view of the considerable size and weight of the stack processed by the above sorting device, manual loading of the stack is awkward and requires a good deal of effort, and difficulty is encountered in automatically moving it along the inclined supporting surface.